[CLUB RUGBY] Saracens breaching salary cap, yet again.

[L'irlandais]

I strongly suspect they didn’t want to go down that particular rabbit hole because one can go to prison for tax evasion.

It is thought that Premiership Rugby have investigated before only to decide not to take action because others were doing the same.

Premiership Rugby could get into trouble for facilitating, so it probably suits everyone not to look too closely. Criminal facilitation is defined in Section 44(4) in Part 3 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017.

[LAWS] If HMRC decide tax is payable the sums could be backdated until 2006.[/LAWS]
So all 12 clubs have been doing it (to some extent) and for a lot longer than just since 2016.

 

[Skids]

So all 12 clubs have been doing it (to some extent) and for a lot longer than just since 2016.

Reference please (my highlight)?

 

[L'irlandais]

Reference please (my highlight)?

Sources linked (as always) in my previous post. In this particular case a Guardian artilce.

Clubs fear impact of investigation into image rights 'tax loophole' by Paul Rees
• Players' image rights payments being probed
• Clubs could face 'large bill' from HMRC

First published on Sun 27 Sep 2009 00.10 BST
HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS, concerned that sports clubs and players might be using image rights as a means of tax evasion, are investigating all 12 Guinness Premiership clubs. County cricket and rugby league are also under scrutiny and top football clubs could be the next target.

"It is clear that the Revenue sees this area as a potential tax loophole," said one rugby club official, who asked not to be named. "Some clubs face a potentially large bill if the Revenue finds instances of image rights being paid in lieu of salary, thus avoiding PAYE and National Insurance, but there is a feeling that it is using rugby and cricket to establish ground rules before moving on to the biggest football clubs where the potentially big money lies."

 

[L'irlandais]

Finally a bit of good news. Premiership Rugby to release report into salary cap breaches. It has not just hit the integrity of Saracens as a club - but the Premiership as a whole. It is hoped the transparency of doing so, will to start to repair reputations of all involved.

Although, Leicester expect Premiership-wide salary cap inquiry after Saracens scandal.

"I'd like to think that this leads to a period where there is a confidence that clubs are working to the salary cap because everyone will be very aware of the consequences if they don't."

 

[Skids]

Sky News has early access, apparently.

 

[L'irlandais]

Interesting none involved felt buying property for players with interest free loans wasn’t dodgy, in a Sport where players frequently leave to play for another club.

I think the one of most interest to Inland Revenue and the Premiership on a wider front may well be

Premiership Rugby said Saracens overpaid Itoje's image rights because he was being underpaid in normal salary so the club could come in under the salary cap.

Since that 2009 article suggests that is a widespread practice.

 

[crossref]

Interesting none involved felt buying property for players with interest free loans wasn’t dodgy, in a Sport where players frequently leave to play for another club.

I think the one of most interest to Inland Revenue and the Premiership on a wider front may well be

Since that 2009 article suggests that is a widespread practice.

Itoje, or his comoany, presumably declared it as income and paid tax on it.
The HMRC definition of what is income is not the same as what counts towards the salary cap ..

 

[beckett50]

It is interesting the new Chairman is claiming that Saracens never blocked the publication of the PRL report. One suspects that perhaps there were some other club Chairmen shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

https://www.saracens.com/a-message-to-our-fans/

 

[crossref]

It is interesting the new Chairman is claiming that Saracens never blocked the publication of the PRL report. One suspects that perhaps there were some other club Chairmen shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

https://www.saracens.com/a-message-to-our-fans/

He says the *he himself * has never asked for it to be blocked.
I read into that that the previous regime blocked it.

 

[SimonSmith]

He says the *he himself * has never asked for it to be blocked.
I read into that that the previous regime blocked it.

Another one of those occasions I agree with CR.

 

[Skids]

Itoje, or his comoany, presumably declared it as income and paid tax on it.
The HMRC definition of what is income is not the same as what counts towards the salary cap ..

Hope rather than presume as it appears HMRC will be investigating all 12 Premiership clubs wrt tax and image rights payments, before progressing onto football.

This is a sad, sorry tale. I always felt we (rugby) held the higher ground but it appears the sport is as corrupted as all else.

 

[L'irlandais]

Perhaps crossref is right. Once investigated IR find everyone paid their taxes.

However the Guardian article in my #23 suggests that what's worrying the Revenue people is all those missed employer’s contributions, on the potentially higher salary, if image rights had been given as part of the salary package. You are correct in saying the salary cap definition doesn’t come into it; it is the law of the land which must be respected first and foremost. The Premiership’s own internal investigation must have stumbled across this, surely? If they were aware of Saracens modus operandi, then the pattern is easy enough to spot in other club’s finances. I suspect Rugby’s failing, is that our attempts to exploit a tax loophole were amateur. Football on the other hand, have been professional about it, by paying millions to accountants and laywers to come up with a watertight solution. The notion that “Sure, everybody’s at it, your Honour.” is no defense in court.

Another Guardian article taking a swipe at Union.

This is hardly the new face of the game. Rugby has always had its slush funds. It was slush money that was the very definition of shamateurism in the old days. It's just moved from the odd 80 quid [‘80s] to 816 grand [2000]. Inflation.

Inflation it is; I suspect we are talking about millions now twenty years down the road.

 

[Marc Wakeham]

So all 12 clubs have been doing it (to some extent) and for a lot longer than just since 2016.

Reference please (my highlight)?

HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS,... investigating all 12 Guinness Premiership clubs.

So you have decided the outcome of the investigation before it is completed. So much for due process. The word INVESTIGATING is important here.

 

[crossref]

At the end of the day tax and salary cap are different issues
You could easily be within the rules of one of those, and outside the rules of the other

But, yes, if you are cheating on one, suspicion that you might cheat the other

 

[L'irlandais]

From the first linked article in my #32

The biggest revelation in the report is that the Premiership’s salary cap manager, Andrew Rogers, submitted evidence that Wray and two Saracens directors had paid Itoje £1.6m for a 30% share of his image rights. However a separate valuation undertaken for Premier Rugby Limited said Saracens had overpaid by £800,000, an amount that was therefore considered to be salary.

Irrespective of whether Itoje paid taxes, the Club avoided paying employer’s contributions on that sum.

As pointed out in #32, this is hardly the new face of the game, it has always been the case, if we ever cared to look behind the mask of respectability.

Eight-hundred-and-sixteen grand (£68,000 each from the top 12 English clubs) allegedly set aside to protect the cartel: to keep Rotherham out and to shelter the altogether larger investment of the Premiership club owners.

allegedly :sarc:
Who believes this loose affiliation of sugar daddies don’t ever talk to one another about the latest wheeze.
They have ample opportunity to have lunch/dinner together, or just a quiet drink at the bar, when teams play each other every weekend.

I think there are instances where a player does not have any value to his image rights but still receives a payment," said Chris Caisley, a partner of the law firm Walker Morris and a former chairman of Bradford Bulls. "There are other examples where the image rights of a player are worth more to a club than his contribution on the field. I'd expect the Revenue to target those players whose image rights are not worth anything."

"What we need in this is clarification," said the Premier Rugby chief executive, Mark McCafferty. "It is about establishing ground rules, such the percentage of salary that can be paid into an image rights company."

The Professional Rugby Players' Association are not perturbed by the investigation. "The only issue we would have is if we felt unfair penalties were being imposed," said the chief executive, Damian Hopley. "Rugby union is enjoying a high profile and young players emerging are finding themselves fêted in a way their predecessors were not. All we want from HMRC is clarity."

So it would seem it is standard practice to player image rights, even to players who don’t have the limelight like Itoje. Seems dodgy to me.

 

[L'irlandais]

Oh, to add insult to injury.

DISCIPLINE, HONESTY. WORK RATE. HUMILITY.
Four core values that have built the incredibly successful Saracens team we see today.

Saracens’ core values inclue Honesty. WTF? Please stop insulting the intelligence of rugby supporters, the word honesty and the Saracens club have nothing in common. Be honest with yourselves, first and foremost.

Sarries paid over £3million in legal fees ensuring that their payments were abiding by the law. They seriously should ask for their money back. According to Brendan Ventner Saracens have been spending like that not just for the six years (during which they broke the salary cap) but for the past 15 years. If not right back to the beginning of Nigel Wray’s involvement 30 years ago. Slush funds a-go-go, where’s the honesty in that?